Practice - Deloittes resigns audit following accounting

Deloitte & Touche confirmed this week it had resigned as auditor of Scottish engineer Semple Cochrane after the company asked Ernst & Young to undertake an independent review of its accounts in April.

The revelation came as the ailing company announced a mid-point report of the review, which estimated accounting irregularities will find net assets of the company to have been overestimated by #10m.

A Deloittes spokesman said the E&Y report was a factor in its resigning the audit. He added: ‘We are no longer auditor of Semple Cochrane. However we are not in a position to comment on the validity of the assertions made since.’

Deloittes had been the company auditor since last June after it took the business following the Big Five firm’s merger with Scottish practice Rutherford, Masons & Dowdes – the previous auditor.

E&Y said the full review will be completed before the end of the month and signalled it would be reviewing the last four years of audit.

Semple Cochrane FD Russell Hynd was unavailable for comment at the time of going to press.